Partners and Practitioners: Women and the Management of Surgical Households in London, 1570-1640

Summary This study explores the gendered nature of surgical practice in early modern London and the ways in which women participated in the provision of care within the city's surgical households. The juxtaposition of domestic and occupational space and the logistics of patient care within surgical households provided fertile experiential training ground for female practitioners and necessitated partnerships between surgeons and their wives. Despite the ambivalence engendered in attitudes toward women's affiliation with the Barber-Surgeons' Company, surgery's relatively broad practical scope, lack of clearly defined educational prerequisites and emphasis on cooperative practice facilitated the involvement of female practitioners. By challenging narrowly defined actors' categories, this study argues that inasmuch as women were not explicitly identified as surgeons by Barber-Surgeons' Company officials, they played vital and valued roles within London's medical landscape as the wives, widows and daughters of licensed surgeons.